1. Escape The Heat. The Nature Conservancy suggests a number of places to go to escape the summer heat. These Arizona escape-the-hot places include: In Arizona, the Conservancy has helped protect more than 1.5 million acres. Included in those acres are the Conservancy’s 12 preserves in Arizona. Six of the preserves are open to the public. The Conservancy also works with partners to protect and restore important waterways in the state.
Southern Arizona
Aravaipa Canyon Preserve
Muleshoe Ranch CMA
Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve
Ramsey Canyon Preserve
San Pedro River
Central Arizona
Hassayampa River Preserve
Verde River
Western Arizona
Bill Williams River
Northern Arizona
Colorado River
Hart Prairie Preserve
Hart Prairie Preserve
Need help finding our preserves? Download directions (.pdf, 143 kb) to the six Arizona preserves open to the public.
Good travels and stay cool. Remember to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footsteps whenever possible. Source: Nature Conservancy
2. Flash Floods Force Evacuations, Closures On Havasupai Reservation.
Monsoon-related flash flooding that hit the Havasupai village of Supai on Wednesday and Thursday have forced the closure of the popular Grand Canyon destination to visitors for at least a week.
Dozens of people who were staying at the campground just downstream from the tribal village had to evacuate due to the flooding, but so far none of the 200 tourists who were in the canyon at the time have been reported missing or seriously injured, according to a spokeswoman who works for the tribe.
The first 7-foot wall of water hit Supai shortly before dark on Wednesday, triggering tribal officials to evacuate the campground, according to spokeswoman Abbie Fink. Some people had to leave without grabbing their gear and backpacks. Hours later, at about 3:30 a.m., another wave of flooding hit the village.
The Tribal Council has closed Havasu Canyon to visitors for the next seven to 10 days. The tribe is asking that tourists with confirmed reservations for the coming weeks contact their travel advisor for more information. All phone lines are being used for emergency services, so members of the public should not try to contact the Tribal Tourism Office at this time. Indian Route 18, which leads to the Havasupai Reservation, is closed until further notice.
3. Special Seminar: Food, Water, and Energy in the Arava Valley: Turning Disadvantage to Advantage in the Hyper-arid Climate of the Region
July 18, 2018
Time/Location: 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. / WRRC Sol Resnick Conference Room (350 N. Campbell Ave.) Please note special time.
Light refreshments will be served.
Speakers:
David Lehrer, Director, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
Dorit Davidovich Banet, CEO, Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative
The Arava Valley is a sparsely populated region in southern Israel. Its hyper-arid climate produces Less than one inch of rain a year and its temperatures reach 115° to 120° F in the summer. For over 60 years, Israelis have successfully grown crops in this extreme climate, making the Arava Valley a major exporter of fruits and vegetables worldwide. Recently, the residents of the Arava Valley hav harnessed the region’s plentiful solar radiation with a collection of distributed private solar power fields, which provide 100% of the daytime energy needs to the city of Eilat and the villages in the Arava Valley.
4. Friday the 13th. Long considered a harbinger of bad luck, Friday the 13th has inspired a late 19th-century secret society, an early 20th-century novel, a horror film franchise and not one but two unwieldy terms—paraskavedekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia—that describe fear of this supposedly unlucky day.
Just like walking under a ladder, crossing paths with a black cat or breaking a mirror, many people hold fast to the belief that Friday the 13th brings bad luck. Though it’s uncertain exactly when this particular tradition began, negative superstitions have swirled around the number 13 for centuries.
While Western cultures have historically associated the number 12 with completeness (there are 12 days of Christmas, 12 months and zodiac signs, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 gods of Olympus and 12 tribes of Israel, just to name a few examples), its successor 13 has a long history as a sign of bad luck.
The ancient Code of Hammurabi, for example, reportedly omitted a 13th law from its list of legal rules. Though this was probably a clerical error, superstitious people sometimes point to this as proof of 13’s longstanding negative associations.
Fear of the number 13 has even earned a psychological term: triskaidekaphobia.
WHY IS FRIDAY THE 13TH UNLUCKY?
According to biblical tradition, 13 guests attended the Last Supper, held on Maundy Thursday, including Jesus and his 12 apostles (one of whom, Judas, betrayed him). The next day, of course, was Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.
The seating arrangement at the Last Supper is believed to have given rise to a longstanding Christian superstition that having 13 guests at a table was a bad omen— specifically, that it was courting death.
Though Friday’s negative associations are weaker, some have suggested they also have roots in Christian tradition: Just as Jesus was crucified on a Friday, Friday was also said to be the day Eve gave Adam the fateful apple from the Tree of Knowledge, as well as the day Cain killed his brother, Abel.
THE THIRTEEN CLUB
In the late-19th century, a New Yorker named Captain William Fowler (1827-1897) sought to remove the enduring stigma surrounding the number 13—and particularly the unwritten rule about not having 13 guests at a dinner table—by founding an exclusive society called the Thirteen Club.
The group dined regularly on the 13th day of the month in room 13 of the Knickerbocker Cottage, a popular watering hole Fowler owned from 1863 to 1883. Before sitting down for a 13-course dinner, members would pass beneath a ladder and a banner reading “Morituri te Salutamus,” Latin for “Those of us who are about to die salute you.”
Four former U.S. presidents (Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt) would join the Thirteen Club’s ranks at one time or another.
FRIDAY THE 13TH IN POP CULTURE
An important milestone in the history of the Friday the 13th legend in particular (not just the number 13) occurred in 1907, with the publication of the novel Friday, the Thirteenth written by Thomas William Lawson
The book told the story of a New York City stockbroker who plays on superstitions about the date to create chaos on Wall Street, and make a killing on the market.
The horror movie Friday the 13th, released in 1980, introduced the world to a hockey mask-wearing killer named Jason, and is perhaps the best-known example of the famous superstition in pop culture history. The movie spawned multiple sequels, as well as comic books, novellas, video games, related merchandise and countless terrifying Halloween costumes.
WHAT BAD THINGS HAPPENED ON FRIDAY 13TH?
On Friday, October 13, 1307, officers of King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order formed in the 12th century for the defense of the Holy Land.
Imprisoned on charges of various illegal behaviors (but really because the king wanted access to their financial resources), many Templars were later executed. Some cite the link with the Templars as the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition, but like many legends involving the Templars and their history, the truth remains murky.
In more recent times, a number of traumatic events have occurred on Friday the 13th, including the German bombing of Buckingham Palace (September 1940); the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York (March 1964); a cyclone that killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh (November 1970); the disappearance of a Chilean Air Force plane in the Andes (October 1972); the death of rapper Tupac Shakur (September 1996) and the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy, which killed 30 people (January 2012).
SOURCES
“The Origins of Unlucky Friday the 13th,” Live Science.
“Friday the 13th: why is it unlucky and other facts about the worst day in the calendar,” The Telegraph.
“13 Freaky Things That Happened on Friday the 13th,” Live Science.
“Here’s Why Friday the 13th is Considered Unlucky,” Time. “Friggatriskaidekaphobes Need Not Apply,” New-York Historical Society.
